Sour Apples

The "mayor" of a rural Turkish village is an authoritarian father to a trio of beautiful young women, each of whom is privately engaged in courting and being courted by men whom daddy would not approve of. Eldest sister Türkan (Songül Öden) writes letters to her intended, although they have never met in person. Youngest sister Muazzez (Farah Zeynep Abdullah) is the recipient of a fragrant bottle of shampoo, a mystifying gift. Her suitor will become caught up in the 1980 Turkish coup as Sour Apples, with soaring cinematography and copious humor, takes us from the 1970s to the 1990s. "Every place has its own customs," a character says, and writer-director Yilmaz Erdogan—who also plays the stern father—is intent on examining how old rituals and timeless traditions interplay with delightful family dynamics.—Dave Nuttycombe

In Turkish with English subtitles

WORLD VIEW

Sour Apples

The "mayor" of a rural Turkish village is an authoritarian father to a trio of beautiful young women, each of whom is privately engaged in courting and being courted by men whom daddy would not approve of. Eldest sister Türkan (Songül Öden) writes letters to her intended, although they have never met in person. Youngest sister Muazzez (Farah Zeynep Abdullah) is the recipient of a fragrant bottle of shampoo, a mystifying gift. Her suitor will become caught up in the 1980 Turkish coup as Sour Apples, with soaring cinematography and copious humor, takes us from the 1970s to the 1990s. "Every place has its own customs," a character says, and writer-director Yilmaz Erdogan—who also plays the stern father—is intent on examining how old rituals and timeless traditions interplay with delightful family dynamics.—Dave Nuttycombe